"Replay Value Ahoy!"

Fallout, created by Interplay, is a futuristic RPG. It is set in California, in a Post-Apocalypse environment. You take control of a Vault Dweller, who you can make and customize yourself. Creating your character is fun and addicting all on its own. You can customize skills from 1-10. One being the worst and ten being the best. Depending on how high, or low these skills are, will determined what kinds of things will happen in your game. There are also Tag skills. How well you can do something, such as fire a small gun, or fix a weapon. These Secondary skills also influence the type of game you'll have. Another sweet feature are traits. Traits are what makes your character different. These traits will effect your character more than how the game plays out.

After you make your character, you'll start off on your quest, to get a water chip for your vault. Don't be fooled however, because that is just 1 quest of many.

The combat system in Fallout is like no other. As soon as someone turns hostile towards you, or you attack someone combat begins. and it won't end until you kill all the hostile enemies or run to another area.

Combat is not the only way to get around. You can talk your way out of situation if your skill is high enough.

NPCs, which are non-playable characters, make this game great. NPCs will react differently depending on Skills, derived Stats,how much they like you, and your Karma(whether your good or evil).

In Fallout, Karma plays a big role. Your Karma is a number,
which can be either negative or positive. If your Karma is negative, your a bad person, if its positive, your a good doer. How you solve problems and who you kill or don't kill will influence your Karma. Like everything else, Karma plays a role in NPC reactions.

10/10 Gameplay: As I said, the gameplay is like no other.
You do quests for people using your many different talents, and earn EXP for those quests. You gain a level after you meet a certain EXP requirement. The requirement gets higher with each level.

9/10 Music/Graphics: The music for fallout is pretty good, it just feels right with the current place your in, whichever place that may be. The Graphics are amazing for a game this old. It may be 2D, but 2D has never looked so good.

10/10 Replay Value: The many different ways to play this game and how you create your character makes this game very addicting. You'll want to replay it over and over....

10/10 Overall Overall, this game is well balanced and just plain fun. And can keep you entertained for months..

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/02, Updated 08/11/02